Imagine you’ve invited some people to your house. They drive your cars, pet your dog and touch your tools. Then they drink all the sweet tea. Would you ever invite those people back? Nope, me neither.

For two nights a week, and several weeks in a row, the Pickens Sheriff’s Office invited me and some other people to their house (the Big House on Camp Road). We drove their cars, pet their dog, touched their tools and drank all the sweet tea. Somehow, they seemed to enjoy it.

Using grant money designated for public education, Lieutenant Ernie McArthur thought up the Citizens Academy, but then he had to sell the idea to Sheriff Craig. Teaching taxpayers a few factoids is one thing, but letting them drive cars and shoot guns is something else. But Sheriff Craig trusted Ernie, whose instincts are good and boyish charm even better. He knew he was onto something great.

Published on Wednesday, 26 September 2012 13:42 | Written by Christie Pool

$1.5 million remains uncollected from 2011

Despite cooler temperatures, that daily walk to your mailbox next week may not be very pleasant as most of us will be met with our 2012 property tax bills.

On Monday, Pickens County Tax Commissioner Sharon Troglin said bills would be going out earlier than usual this year – with an accompanying earlier deadline for payment. Depending on the printer, she said, the bills would be sent either this Friday or Monday. If they are mailed Friday, she said, the payment deadline will be Nov. 27. If they go out Monday, Oct. 1, the deadline will be November 30.

Once the county’s digest is approved by the state, the bill information is sent to a printer and cued up in line along with other Georgia counties. This year will mark the earliest Pickens County tax bills have been due in decades.

“As long as I’ve been here – and I’ve worked in the tax office for 23 years - I don’t ever remember them being out this early,” Troglin said.

Films like Trouble With the Curve, some of which was shot in Jasper, are contributing steadily to the state's economy.

ATLANTA, September 24, 2012 — The Georgia Film, Music & Digital Entertainment Office, a division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD), announced today that Georgia-lensed productions generated an economic impact of $3.1 billion in the state during FY12 (July 1, 2011 – June 30, 2012), a 29% increase from FY11.

“The 2012 fiscal year saw record investment in the state by the entertainment industry, with more than $879.8 million in direct spending,” said GDEcD Commissioner Chris Cummiskey. “The film industry’s impact will have a lasting effect on Georgia’s economy for years to come.”

See story on Trouble With the Curve opening in this week's print and e-editions.

By John Nelson, curator of the A. C. Moore University of South Carolina

“[Annie]'d go out in the evening and pick a mess of it...

Carry it home and cook it for supper,

'Cause that's about all they had to eat.”

---lyrics by Tony Joe White

Of course, Annie would only collect : “Pokeweed,” (Phytolaccaamericana) in the spring, as the plants were just coming up. The young, tender leaves, boiled, have been used for a long time as a pot-herb (love that term!!), which means that cooking is involved--in this case, a lot of cooking, as they must NEVER be eaten raw. Pokeweed parts tend to be poisonous, especially late in the growing season, as in now.

What an odd native American it is! Nearly all of its relatives are tropical, in both South America and in Africa. Some even attain “big tree” size. Our plant, though, is definitely an herb, a perennial, coming back year after year (if given the opportunity) from massive root-crowns. Pokeweed grows up quickly, making smooth stems and leaves. The stems are rather fragile, hollow and pithy, and easily broken or knocked down. In the summer, flowers are produced on racemes, which appear one at a time opposite a stem leaf. Twenty or thirty flowers will be produced on the raceme.

ATLANTA – Powerball will carry an estimated $200 million jackpot to a single annuity winner for Wednesday’s drawing as the excitement grows in Georgia.

The jackpot has grown since Aug. 18 and has rolled 11 times.

Powerball offers two payment options: the $200 million jackpot prize paid over 29 years in 30 graduated payments, or the cash option, which is approximately $128 million. Powerball tickets are $2 per play.

As with all other Georgia Lottery games, proceeds from Powerball will benefit education in the state of Georgia. Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corp. has returned more than $13.6 billion to the state of Georgia for education. All Georgia Lottery profits go to pay for specific educational programs, including Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program and Georgia’s Pre-K Program. More than 1.4 million students have received HOPE, and more than 1.2 million 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program.